Ferrari might consider bringing back the manual transmission, says the company’s chief product development officer Gianmaria Fulgenzi. “It’s something that could be in the future, depending on the product,” Fulgenzi told MotorTrend in Italy last week.
That doesn’t mean we might see stick-shift versions of Ferraris like the mid-engine 296 GTB or the front-engine 12 Cilindri, however. While Fulgenzi acknowledged some customers have asked for a Ferrari with a manual transmission, he emphatically ruled out any possibility Maranello would follow the lead set by Porsche with its new 911 T and introduce a manual transmission variant of a mainstream model.
The last Ferrari offered with a manual transmission was the 2012-model-year California. Since then, Ferrari has only offered cars equipped with dual-clutch transmissions. And Fulgenzi made it clear that’s not about to change: “For a performance car the manual transmission is not something [you want],” he said. “When you have your hands on the wheel and you can use the paddles, there’s nothing better than that. Nothing, nothing, nothing.”
If Ferrari does bring back the manual, it would likely appear in one of the company’s high-end, limited-edition Icona models, Fulgenzi said. “If we are talking about an Icona car [it could happen], because it’s a car that represents a heritage to be admired, to be driven in a certain way.”
The Icona cars built so far—the front-engine Monza SP1 and SP2, and the mid-engine Daytona SP3, all of which commanded $2 million-plus price tags—took themes and concepts from Ferraris of the past and reinterpreted them in a modern way using cleverly repackaged hardware from existing Ferrari models. Icona cars have become a fourth model stream for Ferrari, alongside the sports cars, the GTs, and the special hypercars. And a highly lucrative one: All 599 Daytona SP3s were quickly snapped up by eager collectors, generating more than $1.3 billion in revenue.
Ferrari marketing chief Enrico Galliera has already announced Ferrari will do more Icona cars. “We have no idea what the next will be,” he told MotorTrend in 2022, “though I think you can easily identify four or five strong concepts we could work with.”
How about a modern take on a 250 GT SWB, Enrico? With a manual transmission.
Blythe Schewe
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